Zack L. Lyde
Co-Founder & Contributing Writer
MAAFA Screams News
Spring Edition 2020
It always comes back to this: "Truth Matters", so... here it goes again!
Eighty years, ten months and twenty-eight days ago in this place, I became a living soul. Well, since I've been through this so much, let me have the benefit of accuracy of my birthday. I'm absolutely on point as to the place-- Brunswick, Georgia.
If one was in search of a place of Black Pride and a drive to succeed, you did not have to look far. College presidents came from here, black men built a gym for the community so basketball could be played and Duke Ellington could be heard in it. The neighborhood of black people congratulated each other for achievements and academic prowess. What had been, the condition that the neighborhood was in and what was gone be were all analyzed within the community.
Young people's lives were once shaped in this city; to jog and play were safe activities to do daily. The Brunswick Red Birds hit home runs here. The Andrews Beach for black people supported economic development during a time where Jekyll Island was not just for Whites Only, although the swimming pool for Coloreds Only was a set rule. Clubs for night life and Georgia skin was for gambling while Jazz & Blues competed with Gospel Spirituals.
Leaving this place to join the Army was painful but not as painful as it was returning home.
Arrested the first night back from Vietnam (in uniform) it was a shock, yet it was an announcement of Ahmaud Arbrey's murder. The laws for the lynchings of our baby boys has sustained themselves in very sophisticated ways, Georgia's self defense laws were barbarically wrapped in hate with the same fate as the three recorded lynchings that can be found in Montgomery, Alabama. However, I ask that you consider that there were many more instances that have been quietly kept.
In my mind, I cannot distinguish the difference between District Attorneys; Pontius Pilate; Judas Iscariot; or Wardens, for our police and leadership are bent on the destruction of black people.
Jump in the truck
Chase a nigger
Eenie
Meenie
Miney
Moe
Catch a nigger by the toe
If he hollers let him go
If not, wrestle with him over the white man's gun then just declare you had to shoot him cause a white woman called 911.
This is Rev. Zack L. Lyde, founder of The Principal Pastors of the Poor Project (Brunswick, GA) We ain't through with you yet! MAAFA Screams News-- where the TRUTH hurts!
Photos courtsey of blackartdepot.com & newyorktimes.com